Vaccines

A new study by Novateur Ventures provides a comparative analysis of twelve Covid-19 vaccines that had initiated or announced the Phase III clinical trial stage by early November 2020. The study highlights the early successes, as well as the hurdles and barriers yet to be overcome for ending the global Covid-19 pandemic. The study analysed: […]

Biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, Moderna, has had antibody persistence data out to six months following the second Covid-19 vaccine dose published in The New England Journal of Medicine. “We are pleased that this new data shows antibody persistence through six months following the second dose of our Covid-19 vaccine,” said […]

Valneva, a specialty vaccine company focused on the development and commercialisation of prophylactic vaccines for infectious diseases with significant unmet medical need, has announced positive data for Part A of the Phase I/II clinical trial of its inactivated, adjuvanted Covid-19 vaccine candidate, VLA2001. Based on this data, the company plans to commence a Phase III […]

When variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerged in late 2020, concern arose that they might elude protective immune responses generated by prior infection or vaccination, potentially making re-infection more likely or vaccination less effective. To investigate this possibility, researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and […]

Viroclinics-DDL, a Contract Research Organisation (CRO) specialising in molecular diagnostic testing and assay development, and ENPICOM, a bioinformatics software engineering company, have announced the approval of a joint MIT Zuid subsidy (SME Innovation Stimulation Top Sectors South Holland) application. This R&D partnership project combines in vitro diagnostic and high-throughput sequencing expertise of Viroclinics-DDL and in […]

Novavax, a biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, GSK and the UK Government Vaccines Taskforce announced that they have reached an agreement in principle to support manufacturing of up to 60 million doses of Novavax’ Covid-19 vaccine candidate (NVX-CoV2373) for use in the UK. GSK will provide ‘fill and finish’ manufacturing capacity […]

Shelley McLendon, VP of Project Management, Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at ICON, outlines best practices that can keep trials running at optimal speed and efficiency, and the benefits of adopting a strategic partnership. The world responded to the Covid-19 crisis at unprecedented speed — including vaccine development. During a pandemic, timing is critical as the virus […]

Resilience in pharma and biotech supply chains is essential for the roll out of the Covid-19 vaccine, says Karl Lauri, ERP/MRP software manufacturer and distributor MRPeasy.com.  While the pandemic has highlighted the strength of the UK’s pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector, it has also shed light on the vulnerabilities of intricate, geographically extended and time-critical supply chains which needs to be prioritised. An efficient ERP/MRP ‘backbone’ will […]

The Winter 2020/21 issue of DDW is now available in print and via the DDW App, featuring the latest innovation and insight from the drug discovery and development community. This season’s issue contains features on vaccines and immunology, AI and the US biotech sector plus expertise from companies such as PerkinElmer, Thermo Fisher Scientific and […]

Traditional approaches for vaccine discovery and development are being reimagined and accelerated – leveraging technologies in novel ways to streamline workflows and forging collaborations. Dr. Sanjay Garg and Dr. Anis H Khimani, discuss key learnings and best practices during COVID-19 vaccine research and how we can take these forward to pathogens yet unknown. Typically, it […]

Leukocare, a German biotechnology company specialising in formulation development for biologics, viral vectors and vaccines, has opened development labs in Milford, USA. Its headquarters will remain in Martinsried/Munich, Germany. Being present in the US market offers the opportunity to collaborate closely with customers and partners on tailor-made solutions in the field of drug product formulation […]

Rutgers Research Professor, Daniel Hausman, examines the ethical questions around human challenge trials for COVID-19 vaccines The first human challenge trial to test COVID-19 treatments and vaccines is set to begin in January in the United Kingdom. These trials, in which healthy volunteers are infected with the virus after being given different vaccines under development, […]

Pfizer and BioNTech have announced that after conducting the final efficacy analysis in their ongoing Phase III study, their mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, met all of the study’s primary efficacy endpoints. Analysis of the data indicates a vaccine efficacy rate of 95% in participants without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection (first primary objective) and also in […]

The world’s first participants to take part in a phase III trial of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine candidate have  been recruited at one of the new NIHR National Patient Recruitment Centres (NPRC) based in Blackpool, UK. US-based biotechnology firm, Novavax, launched the phase III clinical trial of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, NVX-CoV2373, in the UK […]

Cobra Biologics is to manufacture Scancell Holdings COVID-19 vaccine. The agreement covers Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) production of plasmid DNA needed to generate the DNA vaccine, against SARS-CoV-2, for use in a Phase I clinical trial in 2021 (COVIDITY). The project is funded by an Innovate UK grant awarded to the consortium between Scancell, the […]

A fifth (22%) of people have said that when a COVID-19 vaccine is approved, they’re unlikely to get it, with 10% of people saying they were ‘very unlikely’ to get vaccinated, find UCL researchers as part of the COVID-19 Social Study. Only half (49%) of people reported being ‘very likely’ to get vaccinated. Vaccine myths […]